Month: May 2016

Tonight Jill and I walked down the end of our street, through the Sandringham shopping centre over Beach Road and across to the cliffs anticipating an interesting sunset to farewell the last day of Autumn. We were not disappointed however the sun was so intense behind the thin cloud layers I struggled to focus the surrounds having to keep the lens back near 35mm as in the first image, then a rare one worked on 250mm as in the second shot. We are lucky to witness scenes like this within 10 minutes walk from home.

These images show Black Bock House in Black Rock a suburb on the SE of Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne. Thomas Ebden and his family were the earliest European settlers in this part of Port Phillip way back in the 1850’sand established Black Rock House as their claim on the land. There are a number of mysteries surrounding Ebden and what went on in this early days. He was from South Africa and probably brought fixed ideas on how to respond to the original occupiers of this land. He also took up control of quite a lot of land around Black Rock and also central Victoria, (then called Port Phillip) There are certainly unanswered questions about the actual original reasons for building a stockade as seen in the third image. Who was he going to resist with this? There are no mysteries about the Moreton Bay Fig Tree seen in the second image, it is old and large. These trees are native to the more tropical climate of North east Australia and was introduced here as a seedling.

Some years ago Jill completed a landscape master plan of the grounds of Black Rock House for the City of Bayside. You can see the fruition of aspects of her work in these images.

Many weeks ago Jill and I composed two versions of this haiku when we watched seagulls flying everywhere in a cloudless sky. Unfortunately neither of us carried a camera.

All this time we have waited and seen plenty of seagull flocks but not backdropped against a cloudless sky UNTIL today. I was walking around Ricketts Point with my telephoto lens and mono taking shots of young Pacific gulls messing around in the shallows.

Suddenly in the distance and very high up I could see a large flock of seagulls flying back to Mud Island in the bay from the interior waste tips. Thanks to the zoom I think I have captured the essence of the haiku. What do you think?

The Emus at Tower Hill are top of the pecking order when it comes to food. This Game reserve near Warrnambool and Port Fairy in Western Victoria Australia is a series of puzzles.

First it is one of 2 examples in the world of a volcano that has re exploded and blown itself to pieces. There is a huge inner area surrounded by the rim of the volcano, there are large waterways enclosed within this rim and a central peak like an island. Known as a nested maar it is the largest extinct volcano in Victoria. This makes it rare.

Secondly a succession of state governments have invested in the re vegetation and restocking of native fauna in this reserve. You would expect them to be safe.

People would expect to discover this park would be a national park or even a heritage site given the geological rarity. But it is not.

But no, this place is a state game reserve which means every year the state government allows people, (basically men) with guns to come here in the duck season and blast this peaceful place in their pursuit of killing ducks.

The duck season is a hang over from the colonial past when men with guns could freely shoot and and try to kill living creatures, usually ducks.

Why people want to have guns and shoot to kill living animals intrigues me. I think basically it is license to practice the art of psychopathy.

This is my contribution to RonovanWrites Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge 98 Rein & Quest where you can read haiku by gifted poets from all over the world by clicking on

I watched this Great Egret hunting for frogs at Karkarook Park in a neighbouring suburb last Sunday. It walked around the fringe of this reclaimed quarry (now a nature reserve/park) carefully and patiently seeking out a frog. I kept snapping away as it came closer. Suddenly in one second between me snapping images the bird darted its head under water , came up with a frog and swallowed it. At my local bird group monthly meeting the following Wednesday I heard copperhead snakes were seen on the pathways in this park the day I had been scrambling around in the reeds by the water. Copperhead snakes love to quietly lie in the reeds beside the water waiting for frogs. Last weekend was not a good one for the local frogs.

Our local council has been putting up these signs at points along our coastal walking paths. Across summer Tiger Snakes have been spotted at a number of locations. This natural element certainly adds to the excitement of a stroll along the bushy pathways that wend their way for kilometres along our local coastline. We do get many international tourists who come to the bay for the sights and may think snakes such as this cute little Tiger snake are another tourist attraction to look for.

Charlie enjoyed life and was looking for new adventures, sometimes very silly ones, every day. The first image shows her playing grab with a fisherman’s glove picked up on the beach. She would collect and bring home an array of items such as this glove and especially fluffy and other abandoned pram rejected toys . The second image has her learning petanque a game she adapted to quite easily but soon tired of and the third picture demonstrates the intensity of skink hunting at Bendigo, a pursuit that could occupy her for long periods of time. Skinks are small lizards about 3-4 centimetres long and .5 wide. I cannot remember her ever catching one but that did not detract from the pleasure of the game.